gained money selling ebooks. part I
Looking to publish an eBook and earn money? We don’t blame you: it can make you some money and it means you can officially call yourself a published author. The dream.
Most people think that unless you get lucky and end up becoming the next JK Rowling, writing books is not an easy way to make money.
But remember the hit movie The Martian (starring Matt Damon)?
Actually, he started his life with a humble self-published eBook. The book’s author, Andy Weir, sold the novel as an Amazon Kindle book for 99 cents a copy.
Before long, he was topping the bestseller charts and Hollywood took notice.
With a little Hollywood glamour, you can publish an eBook: take a text document, turn it into an eBook and sell it, and I’ll show you how to get the most out of it.
How much money can you earn with an eBook?
Producing an eBook can be ridiculously cheap and often completely free, and selling your own eBook can earn you anywhere from several euros or dollars a day to next to nothing.
The good news is that it has a lot to say about your potential earnings, so it’s worth taking a look:
- eBooks typically sell for €0.99 to €8.99 and up, but the store (and publishing platform) will take a cut of each sale.
- You can sell your eBook at any price you want, and you can modify the price to try different tactics, but the ideal price depends on your book’s length, reviews, and competition.
- If you have money to invest (or can crowdfund to pay for it), you could put money into marketing to give your book a better chance of success, but there are plenty of ways to market for free, like on social media.
Here I will show you how to maximize your earnings from your eBook…
Tips to make money with your eBook
Follow these steps to make as much money as you can selling eBooks:
- Choose a popular theme for your eBook
I recommend that you write about something that you are really interested in and have experience and knowledge of in the area, instead of choosing a topic that you think will make you money.
If you have an idea for a book and feel like it would be something you’d buy if you saw it in a store, that might be a winner.
Your readers will be able to tell if you are passionate about the topic, and it will obviously make it much easier for you to write about it as well.
Pick a topic that genuinely interests you, but with that said, it’s also worth looking at what’s selling.
Visit your local bookstore or check the best-selling lists on Amazon.
Fiction (particularly erotic fiction) is by far the biggest seller in the e-book market, but that doesn’t mean other areas aren’t profitable: it’s all about finding your niche.
For example, eBooks on religion and spirituality and business and money also tend to do well.
The best ideas to write as an electronic book
- Your original novel, poems or short stories
- Your past essays
- Or a study guide for a subject
- A practical guide to something you know very well: living on a budget, bike maintenance, making the perfect dating app profile, you name it!
A children’s book (even better if you can illustrate it too), or graphic comics. - City guides or a collection of your favorite walking routes
- Books out of copyright, repackaged with notes, an introduction, or a translation and sold under their own label
- If you are fluent in another language, team up with another writer and post a translated version of your work.
2. Write your eBook to a high standard
The more time and effort you put into your eBook, the better it will be and therefore the more you can charge for it.
To create a high-quality eBook, you’ll need to be willing to spend months (or even years!) writing it, then revising and editing multiple drafts until it’s up to scratch.
Using free software to edit your eBook can greatly help improve its quality.
I suggest you download Grammarly to make sure you are typing free of spelling and grammatical errors.
And, along the way, try to get feedback on your writing from as many people as possible.
The writing process can take a while, but producing high-quality text will be worth it.
Not only will this mean you can add a higher selling price to your eBook, but your readers will be more likely to recommend it to people they know, which means (hopefully) more sales.
3. Choose the best value publishing platform for you
Once your eBook is ready for publication (yes!), the hard work is almost over.
The next step to take when considering the best way to monetize your eBook is to research which publishing platform you could make the most money on was. (amazon and smashwords help a lot).
4. Develop a marketing strategy for your eBook.
Just as it’s worth spending time writing your eBook to the highest standard possible, it’s also worth putting a fair amount of your energy into marketing your eBook.
To make money from your work, getting the word out is very important, and your eBook marketing doesn’t have to cost you a penny if you don’t have them.
Social media is an enormously powerful marketing tool, so it pays to create professional accounts on major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that will focus on promoting your published eBook.
To inspire you, watch how your favorite authors are featured online.
Often with successful writing accounts, you’ll see a good balance between posts about everyday life as a writer, with promotional posts about his books interspersed throughout.
In addition to this, it’s also worth making a website with your writing portfolio that links to where to buy your e-book.
Additionally, you can contact book clubs directly to see if they would be interested in reading your text at a discounted price.
5. Enter your eBook in writing contests
After spending so much time perfecting his eBook, he deserves some credit for his masterpiece.
Writing contests are not only great for recognition and kudos, they often come with cash rewards.
Entering contests is not the easiest way to make money from your eBook, as they are usually very competitive, but they are definitely worth it.
A quick Google search will help you find many writing contests throughout the year.
Note that some will only accept unpublished entries, but sometimes you’ll also find contests open to entries from published writers, so keep an eye out.
Bonus: If you win any contests, you can include them on your social media bio and website to build your reputation as a writer and attract more potential readers.
6. Publish a series of eBooks
If you publish a successful eBook and meet a growing audience, you might consider writing an entire series of texts built around the same characters or themes.
I, for example, dedicate myself to writing about Planning, Marketing, Sales and Customer Service based on the experience I have as a Mentor and Strategic Consultant.
The best ways to approach writing an eBook series will depend on the nature of your work (ie fiction or nonfiction), but stick to your instincts about what feels right.
Consider whether it would be a natural progression for your eBook to be part of a series of jobs.
For example, if your first eBook was a novel about someone’s freshman year of college, readers would probably also be interested in reading follow-up stories about the student’s adventures in their sophomore and junior years.
Make sure that if you write a follow-up text, it is written with the same high quality as the first one.
And above all, make sure that all future eBooks within a series have their own artistic value and are not written solely for the money.
You could make a good amount of money writing follow-up eBooks, but only if your readers consider them worth their time and cash.
Otherwise, you could be getting complaints, refunds, and poor reviews, and no author wants that, right?
